ELECTION 2008: Lipstick on the Pig The Substance of Governance
The Substance of Governance
America—and the world—are too complicated for all of us to entrust the fortunes and fates of brave men and women to one white guy—or one half-white guy—and his cronies. We are at a turning point in history where time and events move faster than our factory-era electoral and governance processes can handle.
As we enter the 21st Century, my life experience and my broad reading of the thoughts of others have come together to highlight the confrontation of eighteen major forces, half negative and half positive.
The current election cycle in the USA, in 2008, can be characterized as a remarkable one, one that fails to address either the negative forces or the positive forces, and one that fails to embrace and energize the public’s mind. Instead, the two major parties seek to dwell on personalities, lipstick, and a plethora of promises and platitudes that have no substance in relation to a balanced budget that does not exist, nor any process for improving governance in the 21st Century.
To that end, we must not elect anyone who fails to address substance, now. This orientationis intended to establish a common standard for coherence that we should expect from each of the candidates, today and into the future. Put bluntly, the era of Rule by Secrecy is over. We the People are back with a vengeance, and whoever is elected, we will not stay on the sidelines.
I have thought about this a great deal, and I am going to lay out for you an analytic framework and a strategy for creating a smart strong Nation that can create a prosperous world at peace. My strategy, if implemented, makes the presidency impervious to corruption or misdirection because it restores the power of this Republic to the heads and hearts of We the People on a real-time basis and in a comprehensive manner. I first addressed this need in 1994,[1] but no one wanted to listen then.
It begins with LEADERSHIP. We all have confidence in our abilities, but we must also recognize both ourindividual limitations, and the limitations of any partisan process. Both of the conventional candidates avoid this fundamental introspection and have failed to offer up any sensible reform proposals that can, in the ideal, make it possible for the Republic to survive a future combination of a well-intentioned village idiot and a mendacious nakedly amoral closet dictator. America needs to understand that we can have a leadership plan, we can have a holistic strategic approach and its four fundamental reforms, and demand, now, before November 2008, that we can make it possible to elect a leadership TEAM with a leadership PROCESS that is continuous, transparent, accountable, and effective in achieving the public interest. Demanding Instant Run-Off for the November 2008 Presidential Election is the best possible starting point.
APPRECIATING OUR FOUNDERS AND FOREBEARERS I
It does not get any clearer. Sadly, the last serious and honorable initiative to nurture an educated public, the core foundation for national power, prosperity, and peace, was the G.I. Bill in the aftermath of World War II. We then settled into an Industrial Era system intended to create “good enough” factory workers who could follow orders and perform complex repetitive tasks. We created a “one to many” form of education that demanded absolute discipline, eliminated most opportunities for team learning and creativity, and ultimately created a cheating culture and a lazy culture—teaching and learning to rote.
We also failed, at the national level, to realize that funding education as a local public good, one consequently dependent on both the local tax base and the dubious good intentions of local elites, would inevitably be the victim of localized corruption. Across America, the small-town elites have sold out the birthrights of our blue collar and lower middle class citizens, giving public lands and public tax exemptions to corporations in return for real estate deals and commissions that have enriched the few at the expense of the many, and made funding for education more limited at the local level.[2]
It is the failure of education at all levels in America—and the consequent withdrawal of too many of our voters and a coincident decline in union membership—that have made possible three great evils:
1) the collapse of our currency amidst flagrant waste, fraud, and abuse by our federal government;
2) the rise of unregulated industries from Wall Street, where derivatives created false markets that have now collapsed,[3] to Main Street, where our communications, financial, power, transportation, and water industries have failed to be capitalized and are all at severe imminent risk of meltdown; and
3) the collapse of unions, the media, and political parties as advocacy or fact-finding organizations helping their constituencies participate in the political process with reasonable access to relevant information.
Electoral Reform, now, will set the stage for the other three fundamental reforms. It is possible for the American public to “get a grip,” now, and take back the power.
FOUR REFORMS, ELECTORAL REFORM FIRST
We need four reforms in the USA. They are all connected, but only one, Electoral Reform, is immediately achievable in half-measure (those elements that can be imposed on a corrupt partisan Congress as a condition for their being re-elected in November 2008). Electoral Reform as I have drawn from the work of Ralph Nader,[4] primarily, and others, consists of eight measures, the first four implementable NOW:
1) Holiday and Unconditional Absentee Voting. The poor[5] must not be forced to juggle work schedules with voting, and also allowed to demand absentee ballots while still in the local area—unconditionally.
2) Honest Open Debates. The current Commission was created explicitly to displace the League of Women Voters, hard questions, and candidates from other parties. We must fire the fraudulent and undemocratic commission, restore the League, and demand that debates in 2008 include at least four or five parties, not the current bi-opoly alone.
3) Instant Run-Off. It is not too late to demand the Instant Run-Off, which completely eliminates the “spoiler” issue while allowing voters to first vote their true hope, and then vote for a majority winner. This year, in 2008 we have Chuck Baldwin, Bob Barr, Gloria La Riva, Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader, and a few others, each of whom deserves a heart-felt vote from all who agree they are best qualified, without depriving every voter of also having an opportunity to elect a President—and hopefully a nonpartisan team—that is truly acceptable to the majority, not just representing a partisan “surge.”
4) Expanded Debates and Draft National Budget Online by 24 October. It is sheer idiocy to elect one person, their chosen Vice President, and not demand any demonstration of who will select for their Cabinet, or what their spending priorities with our money. Expanded debates would require the advance selection of at least two Cabinet officers, and the creation of a notional balanced budget online, open to public dialog, that shows the economic assumptions about revenue and inflation and planned spending.
In my view, we should be demanding that the candidates address the other three reforms now, before Election Day. Figure 2 above shows the four reforms and how they relate to one another. We have a chance, right now, to put substance on the table. Obviously we cannot rely on any of the mainstream media personalities and owners—they have all chosen to avoid substance, and cannot be trusted in the slightest.
The remaining four reforms can be legislatively enacted now, and implemented after November 2008, in time for November 2010.
5) Tightly-Drawn Districts. It is time to end gerrymandering, a corrupt practice that shames us all, and institute tightly-drawn districts where home rule, local rule, can connect to the national legislative process.
6) Full and Balanced Representation. With the end of gerrymandering, it will become possible to allocate House of Representative seats on a state-wide basis, ensuring that Libertarians, Independents, Greens, Reforms, and others receive their fair share of House seats based on state-wide registrations. Districts can be assigned, as in the United Kingdom, in those instances where a perfect match is not available. With this reform, we can also demand an end to party-line voting and institute anonymous certified voting.
7) Full Public Funding and Free Public Airwaves. The Internet now makes it possible for us to forbid all private funding, to include funding of party or advocacy groups that endorse any candidate. Free air time in equal measure must be given to all candidates, and over time we should migrate to Open Spectrum[6] and end this industrial-era handicapping of allocated spectrum. A campaign tax credit of $100 a year, as well as a Citizens Public Trust that seeks very small contributions (on the order of $5 to $20) from all citizens, will easily enable us to fund this and buy our government back.
8) No Legislation without Consultation. Apart from the obvious need to eliminate all earmarks and especially and immediately all secret earmarks, we must also demand that all legislation at all levels, and all budget authorizations and appropriations and allocations, be published online and available in print on demand, to each and every citizen. There should be no exceptions; funds for secret programs must be revealed at the aggregate level so that taxpayers can realize the extraordinary waste in those programs. Public meetings should be the norm.
GOVERNANCE REFORM
Governance Reform may take time to implement, but there is no reason why our Group Genius[7] cannot demand that it be discussed now, and commitments made now. Modern leadership is not rocket science—it simply requires the highest ethics, total transparency, and integral interactive public consciousness.
Here I propose several easily adapted measures including the naming of two Deputy Vice Presidents, the creation of an Office of Strategy, and the commitment to a non-partisan Cabinet.
I am not addressing Congress but will state in passing that Electoral Reform must lead to an end to the winner take all leadership system, and be replaced with proportional allocation of leadership responsibilities in keeping with our embrace of third party alternatives. In my view, absent Electoral Reform and Governance Reform, the United States of America will dissolve.
The recommendations below create a TEAM and a PROCESS that would allow any reasonable person—provided they are honest—to manage this great Nation effectively and with integrity.
1) Deputy Vice President for the Commonwealth and Deputy Vice President for National Security. The first will oversee the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which will start Managing, not just Budgeting, and all of the Cabinet departments not overseen by the second Deputy Vice President, who will oversee the Director of National Intelligence and coordinate—with decision authority—Commerce, Defense, Homeland Security, Justice, State, and Treasury. If it were up to me, I would make Ron Paul the Vice President for the Commonwealth, Colin Powell the Vice President for National Security, and Hillary Clinton one of two Senate Leaders.
The National Security Council should be converted into a National Policy Council with three Directorates: a directorate for National Security, another for National Competitiveness, and a third for National Resources (the latter addressing preserving and enhancing demographic, natural, financial, and cultural resources). This National Policy Council will be subordinate to the two Deputy Vice Presidents and theDirector-General for Strategy, a nonpartisan individual appointed to the same term as the Comptroller General, impervious to politicization.
2) Coalition Cabinet. John McCain has promised that his Cabinet will be postpartisan, and will include more than a single token Democratic leader. All future Presidents should adopt this view, and demand that their leaders strive to enhance Whole of Government and Whole of Nation outcomes, rather than fighting for budget share and representing corporations over people. Below and on the next page I present work done by several since the questionable 2000 election.[8]
Position / Party / First Choice / CommentAgriculture / Dem / Jim Hightower / Protect family farms, fight racism, food security/safety
Commerce / FC / Clyde Prestowitz[9] / Multilateral treaty adherence, global win-win, BoP[10]
Defense / FC[11] / Sam Nunn / 450-ship Navy, close foreign bases, peace operations
Education / Ind / Derek Bok / Equal across the land, end rote learning, value-oriented
Energy / Grn / Paul Hawkin / Wind & solar, independent in five years, two-way grid
Health & HS / Rfm[12] / Tom Cochran / Focus on global public health, global mental health
Homeland / Rep / Stephen Flynn / Bottom-up 114, 119, phase out, restore FEMA
Interior / Grn[13] / Robert Costanza / Cut water consumption per capita in half then again
Justice / Ind / Philip Heymann / Civil liberties, moral capitalism, protect cyber-commons
Labor / Ind / Robert Huttner / Goal of 60% union membership in 4 years, 80% in 6
State / Rep / Colin Powell / Redirect $100B from NS to Peace on Earth Program
Transportation / Dem / John Claybook / Railroads, general aviation, neighborhoods, work nodes
Treasury / Dem / Felix Royatyn / End deficit, end WTO and IMF, phase out Fed. Rsv.
Veterans’ / Dem / Max Cleland[14] / Tell truth about Gulf War disabilities, eliminate backlog
3) Other Key Positions.
Key Non-Cabinet / Party / First Choice / CommentAmb to Israel / Henry Seigman[15] / Two-state solution, $25B reconstruction & water plan
Chairman, NIC / Ind / Jonathan Schell[16] / Elevate NIC, create OSINT agency, revitalize all
Chief of Staff WH / Rep / David Gergen[17] / Traffic cop, not policy maker
Defense Rv Bd / Ind / Peter Schoomaker / Balance four forces after next, focus on Peace Force
Dir. Classified Intel. / Dem / Jim Clapper / Cut secret budget in half, focus on multinational ops/sharing
Drug Czar / MxLn / Alex Cockburn[18] / Empty the prisons (2 yrs svc), spend on prevention & reform
Environmental PA / Rep / Gordon Durnil[19] / Focus on nuclear waste, chlorine, smog, technical toxins
Immigration / Ind / Pat Buchanan[20] / Clean house, secure borders, living wage for citizens
IRS / Ref / Gary Nolan[21] / End individual taxes, tax financial transactions, high-end goods.
OMB / Rep / Sean O’Keefe[22] / Restore management, transparent budget, end all earmarks
Patent Office / Ind / Jim Turner / Use it within 5 years or lose it, community rights restored
Policy Director[23] / Grn? / Michael Bloomberg / Integrate security, competiveness policy & balanced budget.
Intelligence Dir.[24] / Rep / Brent Scowcroft / Implement the reforms in the 15 books on IC reform.
Research Dir. / Grn? / Yochai Benkler[25] / Focus on standards, interoperability, human productivity.
Strategy Dir-Gen / Rep / David Abshire[26] / Establish long-term planning, inter-agency focus.
Surgeon General / D. Himmelfarb / Go after obesity, alcohol, drugs, smoking, & preservatives.
Trade Rep. / Rep / Alfred Eckes[27] / Fair trade with labor rights as a fundamental
UN Ambassador[28] / Dem / Carol Mosley Braun / Dramatically improve US role and relations
Strategy Matters
LEADERSHIP, as Senator Sam Nunn of Georgia teaches us, must understand the threat, create a strategy, devise a force structure—decide what to invest in diplomatic, economic, information, and military tools—and then find a way to pay for it without breaking the bank. The Comptroller General at the time, David Walker, declared the USA insolvent in July 2007 (as of 2006).[29] All of the Senators, including the two now running for President, ignored him. We have broken the bank. What we demand now will make a difference.[30]
The Director-General for GLOBAL STRATEGY will be responsible for ensuring that we address all of the threats to our Republic; that we use and properly fund all of the instruments of national power, not just the military; and that we focus on creating a sustainable model for future growth that can be adopted by Brazil, China, India, and other demographic giants whose decisions—not ours—will decide the future of our shared planet. As a long-term incumbent and the highest ranking civil servant in the Executive, this individual will be responsible for educating the public, Congress, and the media, not just the Executive. Above in Figure 4 is a depiction of how an Office of Global Strategy might be organized so as to give equal weight to sustainable long-term strategy, and the more immediate disasters and catastrophes, some of which can be anticipated, all of which require “Whole of Government” as well as “Whole of Nation” harmonization.
An example helps to illustrate the difference between the two sides of this office: the Deputy Director for Sustainable Strategy would focus on standards and agreements that stop the paving over of watersheds and other natural barriers. We now know that so-called Acts of God—natural disasters—are in fact Acts of Man,[31] building on and paving over natural flood plains—and that they turn into catastrophes when we fail to plan, prepare, or respond, as happened in the case of Hurricane Katrina. The Deputy Director for Response Management would orchestrate planning for known immediate challenges (such as a hurricane) or surprises (such as an earthquake) and also provide oversight and coordination for responses by all parties, both within the government, and within the private and international sectors. I have no doubt that properly and publicly implemented, this office will be the principal means by which We the People regain the ideals and the benefits of the Republic in which the sovereign individual reigns, and the collective intelligence of the public can be brought to bear to achieve a prosperous world at peace.